Rural Connectivity Investment Program (RRP IND 40423) Sector Road Map SECTOR ASSESSMENT (SUMMARY): ROAD TRANSPORT 1. Sector Performance, Problems, and Opportunities a. General 1. India s road network mainly consists of three categories of roads: (i) about 60,000 kilometers (km) of national highways; (ii) about 600,000 km of the secondary system comprising state highways and major district roads; and (iii) about 2.7 million km of tertiary roads, mainly consisting of rural roads. The total road length is estimated to be about 3.4 million km. National highways provide the high-density links between states. They comprise only 2% of the network but carry about 40% of traffic. State highways link national highways with district headquarters, important towns, and minor ports. Major district roads run within districts, connecting areas of production with markets, and rural areas to district headquarters and to state highways and national highways. The secondary system comprises about 18% of the network and carries about 40% of traffic. Rural roads link rural communities with the highway network, providing access to higher agricultural incomes, employment opportunities, and social services. They represent about 80% of the network and carry about 20% of traffic. 2. Sustained underinvestment in road infrastructure in India has affected all levels of the road network. 1 The national highways and the secondary system have not been able to cope with the rapid traffic growth. In the road subsector, freight traffic has been growing at about 12% per year and passenger traffic at about 8% since 2000. The rapid growth in traffic has led to congestion, road deterioration, and high transport costs. Widespread overloading of freight vehicles damages the road pavement. Mixed use of the roadway by both motorized and nonmotorized vehicles (bicycles, animal-drawn vehicles, rickshaws) causes congestion and high levels of traffic accidents. In rural areas, where 70% of India s population lives, many villages still rely on earthen tracks that are unsuitable for motorized traffic and become impassable during the rainy season due to the poorly finished road surface; missing bridges; and inadequate, defective, or missing drainage structures. b. Rural Roads Subsector 3. The rural road network consists of zilla panchayat roads, gram panchayat roads, 2 and community roads. Following the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in 1992, state governments are to assign responsibility for management of rural roads to the panchayati raj institutions and to remit necessary financial resources for this purpose. This has not yet been fully implemented. Most of the states retain responsibility for rural roads. Due to this ambiguity in responsibility and lack of mechanisms to systematically assess the conditions of the rural roads, their status is not well inventoried and only partially recorded in government statistics. According to statistics published by the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport, and Highways, of 670,170 km of gram panchayat roads, only 135,331 km (20%) were surfaced in 2008. These figures do not cover 1 Since the Sixth Five-Year Plan, 1980 1985, annual investments in roads has varied between 0.6% and 1.5% of gross domestic product, with an average of 1.1%. 2 A panchayat is a body of directly elected people responsible for development of activities in an area constituted for rural areas under Article 243-B of the Constitution of India. The three levels of panchayat are gram panchayat at the village level, intermediate panchayat at the block level, and zilla panchayat at the district level. These panchayats are collectively called "panchayati raj institutions. In some states, panchayats are known as parishads.
2 those roads being added under the Prime Minister's Rural Roads Program (PMGSY). Table 1 shows the status of different types of rural roads. Table 1: Status of Rural Roads in India Total Length Surfaced Length Surfaced Category (km) (km) Length (%) Zilla parishad roads 508,608 278,962 55 Village panchayat roads 670,107 135,331 20 Panchayat samiti roads 336,872 105,173 31 Panchayati Raj Roads Total a 1,515,587 519,466 34 Rural roads constructed under Jawahar Rojgar Yojna and PMGSY 1,061,809 345,011 32 km = kilometer, PMGSY = Prime Minister s Rural Roads Program. a Excludes roads being improved under the PMGSY. Source: Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport, and Highways. 2008. Basic Road Statistics of India. New Delhi. c. Rural Roads under the Prime Minister s Rural Roads Program 4. The PMGSY focuses on providing all-weather connectivity 3 to rural habitations. The road works to be financed under the PMGSY are to create the last mile connectivity to villages in rural areas. A nationwide planning exercise conducted in 2000 to identify unconnected habitations and eligible roads under the PMGSY found that, in rural areas where 70% of India s population lives, about 330,000 habitations (40% of the total 850,000 habitations) lacked allweather road connectivity. To maximize the impacts of the investment under the PMGSY, the Ministry of Rural Development established criteria to give priority to larger habitations. The original target was to provide all-weather road connections to all habitations with a population of 1,000 or more by 2003, and to all habitations with a population of 500 or more by 2007. In hilly or desert areas, or scheduled tribe areas as defined in Schedule V of the Constitution of India, the objective was to connect all habitations with a population of at least 250 by 2007. 5. Key indicators related to the road subsector of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal included in the Rural Connectivity Investment Program are in Table 2. Assam has the poorest road network with only 12% of the roads surfaced, and Odisha has only 14% surfaced. Table 2: Key Road Subsector Indicators in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal Madhya West Item Assam Chhattisgarh Pradesh Odisha Bengal Area (km 2 ) 78,438 135,191 308,245 155,707 88,752 Population (million) a 29 23 69 40 87 Total road length (km) 230,334 74,434 165,740 215,404 211,770 Surfaced road length (km) 26,612 43,528 82,426 30,645 49,111 Surfaced road length (% of total) 12 58 50 14 23 Road density (km/km 2 ) 3 1 1 1 2 Surfaced road density (km/km 2 ) 0.34 0.32 0.27 0.20 0.55 km = kilometer, km 2 = square kilometer. a Population figures as estimated by office of Registrar General of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. Source: Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport, and Highways. 2008. Basic Road Statistics of India. New Delhi. 3 The PMGSY defines an all-weather road as one that is negotiable in all weather conditions and has adequate cross-drainage structures to effectively drain the roadbed.
3 d. Key Problems and Opportunities 6. Funding gap. Full achievement of investment program targets as originally scheduled has been constrained by limited funding availability. Currently available funding sources will not meet the needs of the PMGSY. Specifically, the latest estimate for the remaining PMGSY financing requirement to achieve its goal by 2016 in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal is about $7.95 billion, while available PMGSY funding for the same period is estimated to be around $5.04 billion.. 7. Institutional capacity for maintenance. Institutional arrangements and staff qualifications for the PMGSY in the investment program states are oriented towards project preparation and implementation. However, with the shift in emphasis from construction to the operation and maintenance of the created network of rural roads, 4 there is an urgent need to strengthen capacities for operation and maintenance of the created road network. 8. Support to sustainable rural connectivity training and research. The rural road network makes up more than 80% of the total road network in the country. However, the qualifications and training of civil engineers remain oriented towards high-category roads. This may negatively affect the quality of design, construction, and maintenance of rural roads. The effectiveness of the use of available resources and sustainability of investments may also be negatively affected. There is an urgent need to improve the skills of engineers, technicians, site supervisors, panchayati raj institution staff, design consultants, and contractors involved in the development and maintenance of the rural road network. 9. Road safety. Road safety has been largely neglected in the past. Under the PMGSY, awareness campaign materials were developed, but these were unsuitable for the context and were not fully implemented. The states conducted a few road safety audits but these were not results oriented and had little effect on improving road safety of designs. There is a need to systematically incorporate road safety awareness sessions into the community participation framework and mainstream the incorporation of road safety audits at the design, construction, and post-construction stages. 10. Quality control of design. Under the PMGSY quality control of design was routinely done by state technical agencies, however it became clear that more involvement and ownership of implementing agencies is needed to further improve the quality of design. Under the investment program, all implementing agencies will use an enhanced process of quality control involving the use of quality control toolkit ensuring that all essential items are properly studied and reflected in the road designs. A detailed project report template with incorporated checklists will be used by design consultants to ensure quality of design preparation. Design brief checklists will be used during the transect walks for the consultations with the communities on the issues to be accounted for in the design. 2. Government s Sector Strategy 11. India s Eleventh Five-Year Plan, 2007 2012 continues to emphasize the development of physical infrastructure as the key to promoting broad-based economic growth, developing agriculture and the rural economy, and enhancing the competitiveness of Indian industry and 4 Specifically, more than 65,000 km is currently on 5-year post-construction maintenance, and the length of roads beyond 5-year post-construction maintenance will increase from around 17,000 km to more than 80,000 km by 2016.
4 services. Two major investment initiatives are being implemented. The first is the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), launched in 1998 for upgrading and widening the national highway network. The project includes the 6,000 km "golden quadrilateral" linking Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai and the 7,300 km north south corridor from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and east west corridor from Silchar to Porbandar. This project, which is being implemented by the National Highway Authority of India, envisages construction of four to sixlane roads on the existing network at a cost of Rs540 billion ($11 billion). 12. The second major initiative is the PMGSY, established in 2000, which has the overall objective of connecting rural habitations with populations of 500 or more to all-weather roads by 2007. This was later subsumed within Bharat Nirman. 5 Under the PMGSY, more than 332,022 km of rural roads have been constructed, connecting 80,015 habitations in 29 states nationwide to a greater transportation network. An additional 88,185 km are under construction. Around 260,557 km of roads nationwide connecting eligible 56,449 habitations are yet to be constructed under the PMGSY. In Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal, which are included in the investment program, 108,637 km of rural roads have been constructed under the PMGSY, connecting 39,721 habitations. Construction of an additional 32,158 km of roads is ongoing. According to the June 2011 program update, 85,690 km of roads are yet to be constructed under the PMGSY, to connect all remaining eligible habitations in the investment program states. The Government of India is committed to continuing the implementation of the PMGSY (which is considered a highly successful national flagship program) over the India s Twelfth Five Year Plan, 2013 2017 currently under preparation. 6 13. The government plans to supplement NHDP and PMGSY by setting up special economic zones and special economic regions to promote focused infrastructure development. 7 The public sector is to take the lead in making infrastructure investment in the parts of India that are lagging. Concurrently, the government is promoting the use of public private partnerships in areas such as highways, urban infrastructure, mass rapid transit systems, and tourism infrastructure. To mobilize long-term funds for infrastructure development, the India s Eleven Five Year Plan aims to develop and tap the insurance and pension industry. In addition, longterm funding from development partners such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will continue to be important, especially with the current financial and economic crisis. 3. ADB Sector Experience and Assistance Program 14. Recent engagement of ADB to support the overall government strategy in the road sector is summarized in Table 3. 15. With the creation of vast rural road network under the PMGSY, it is now facing the critical challenge of ensuring the sustainability and keeping up the quality of created assets. Specific issues include (i) institutional arrangements, business procedures, and staff qualifications are oriented towards project preparation and implementation, with inadequate capacities for the planning, programming, and implementation of systematic road maintenance; (ii) past neglect of road safety and lack of associated business procedures, guidance, tools, and staff training has resulted in an absence of systematic road safety awareness and road safety 5 Bharat Nirman (meaning "build India") is a comprehensive rural infrastructure development scheme begun in 2005, and consisting of six components (irrigation, rural housing, rural drinking water, rural electrification, rural telecommunications, and rural roads). 6 Government of India, Planning Commission. 2011. Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth. New Delhi (draft approach to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, August). 7 Special economic regions differ from special economic zones in that they are not eligible for export tax benefits.
5 audit programs; and (iii) lack of additional quality control of design increases the risk of design deficiencies, which sometimes manifest themselves during the construction of roads or shortly after the roads become operational. This situation introduces a major new dimension in continuing ADB assistance to the PMGSY, which shifts focus from providing physical assets solely related to creating new connectivity to building capacities needed for ensuring road life cycle sustainability, including (i) systematic and high-quality asset management, (ii) improving quality of design, (iii) incorporating road safety in the life cycle of rural roads, (iv) promoting and leveraging appropriate and local resource-based technologies, and (v) developing local knowledge to provide evidence for better decision making. Detailed problem analysis related to the proposed ADB assistance program in rural roads is in the problem tree.. Table 3: Government Strategy and Asian Development Bank Assistance Item Primary Network: National Highways Secondary Network: State Highways and Major District Roads Tertiary Network: Rural Roads Length (km) 60,000 600,000 2,700,000 Government scheme and immediate target Length targeted for improvement ADB assistance NHDP I (Golden Quadrilateral) by 2007 NHDP II (north south and east west corridors) by 2009 NHDP III 1st phase by 2009 SARDP-NE phase A to be completed by 2012 6,000 km under NHDP I 7,300 km under NHDP II 10,000 km under NHDP III 3,251 km under SARDP-NE For NHDP II East West Corridor: ($320 million in 2002); National Highway Corridor (Sector) ($400 million in 2003); National Highway Sector II ($400 million in 2004); National Highway Corridor (Sector) supplementary ($100 million in 2009) SARDP-NE to be completed by 2012 For other states, allocation of financial support for capital investment and maintenance 2,500 km in the northeastern region under SARDP-NE West Bengal ($79.2 million in 2001); Madhya Pradesh ($150 million in 2002); Chhattisgarh ($180 million in 2003); Uttaranchal ($550 million MFF in 2006, third tranche for 2011); Madhya Pradesh II ($320 million in 2007); Bihar ($420 million in 2008); Jharkhand ($200 million in 2009); Bihar II ($300 million in 2010); Karnataka ($315 million in 2010); Madhya Pradesh III ($300 million in 2011) PMGSY: connect all habitations with a population of 500 or more. In hilly or desert areas, or scheduled tribe areas, the objective is to connect all habitations with a population of at least 250. 88,185 km are under construction. PMGSY is yet to construct 260,557 km of roads nationwide connecting 56,449 eligible habitations. Rural Roads Sector I: a $400 million (2003, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh), closed in 2009 Rural Roads II Investment Program: b $750 million MFF (2005; Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal), all tranches approved and full amount committed, to be closed in 2013 Rural Connectivity Investment Program (proposed): $800 million, tranche 1: $252 million in 2012 ADB = Asian Development Bank, km = kilometer, MFF = multitranche financing facility, NHDP = National Highway Development Program, PMGSY = Prime Minister s Rural Roads Program, SARDP-NE = Special Accelerated Road Development Program for the North Eastern Region. a ADB. 2003. Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors: Proposed Loan and Technical Assistance Grant to India for the Rural Roads Sector I Project. Manila (Loan 2018-IND and TA 4220-IND). b ADB. 2005. Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors: Proposed Multitranche Financing Facility to India for Rural Roads II Investment Program. Manila (Loan 2248-IND). Sources: Government of India, Planning Commission. 2008. Eleventh Five Year Plan, 2007 2012. New Delhi; and Asian Development Bank.
6 Problem Tree for Rural Roads Subsector in India High instance of mortality at birth in rural communities High instance of mortality in rural communities, especially in children High rate of illiteracy and incomplete school education in rural communities Poor accessibility to pre-, at-, and postbirth medical care Poor accessibility to medical care Low immunization coverage Malnutrition High unenrollment in schools High school dropout rate Overrepresentation of nonperishable agricultural produce in diet Low family income due to high unemployment rate and inability to directly sell produce at markets High rate of spoliage of transported agricultural produce Inability to find and sustain jobs outside villages Inability to directly sell produce at markets Many rural communities are poorly connected to the markets, district headquarters, medical centers and other centers of economic activity Many rural communities are connected just by earthern tracks which are impassable for up to 90 days a year Some rural roads constructed to all-weather standards quickly deteriorate Road safety measures are not built into the life cycle of PMGSY roads Roads are not maintained/ rehabilitated per the prescribed cycle Road design is often of poor quality and does not adequately reflect the situation on the ground Road safety audits (of design, during construction, and on existing roads) are not conducted Insufficient budget to construct all-weather roads connecting all eligible habitations with 500 and more habitants (250 and more in hilly or desert areas, or scheduled tribe areas) over the next 5 years Lack of policies, regulations, equipment, and capacities to protect rural roads from exceesive loads Current procedures for planning, programming, budgeting, contracting, administration, monitoring, and quality control of maintenance are not effective Organizational structure and capacities of IAs are not oriented towards road maintenance and protection of road assets Insufficient qualifications and training for rural road network management Inconsistent process and lack of harmonized template to prepare designs Existing quality control of design is not effective Insufficient training in the consulting industry to prepare design of rural roads Insufficient training to prepare design where it is done inhouse Lack of policies, business procedures and tools to incorporate safety into life cycle of rural roads Insufficient training and skills for management of road safety works on PMGSY roads Insufficient training in the consulting industry to conduct quality road safety audits Insufficient training and capacities of IAs to conduct/manage road safety audits PIU=project implementation unit, PMGSY=Prime Minister s Rural Roads Program, SRRDA=State Rural Roads Development Agency.